Chase on Television Took a Scary Turn in Santa Ana

Jose Ornelas was watching television at home Thursday morning when suddenly the pictures changed from Carol Burnett on a morning talk show to live helicopter shots of police cars in hot pursuit of a hijacked pickup truck.

It looked like just another one of those live police chases that local TV loves. But then he looked again: A neighbor was on the screen.

“Wait a minute, that’s my friend Fish,” Ornelas, 23, shouted at the television. “And that’s Fish’s house. This is happening right outside our house!”

Ornelas was among many residents of this Santa Ana neighborhood who followed the police chase on TV only to find that the drama would roll right up to their doors.

Literally.

Residents who realized what was happening rushed out of their houses in time to see the suspect going from one house to another and scaling a wall moments before he surrendered to officers in a neighbor’s back yard.

Residents in this working-class neighborhood say they have become accustomed to occasional gang shootings, but never expected this: an armed man in a shootout with police in their front yards.

Jim Chavarela, 26, said the roar of helicopters overhead all but blotted out the noise of the hijacked pickup zipping past his house on Pendleton Avenue at about 60 m.p.h. Chavarela ordered his pregnant wife and 4-year-old daughter to run inside.

“I was praying, actually,” Chavarela said. “We got inside the house and locked all the doors and just heard from then on. We heard the sirens, heard the radio, heard the gunshots, and I was just hoping he didn’t come into my house.

“You’re watching TV and suddenly you fear for your life--you realize he could suddenly run into your house,” Chavarela said.

The commotion shattered the balmy morning stillness of the neighborhood, where streets are lined with towering palm trees, yuccas and graceful jacarandas. The stucco houses--valued at about $150,000--are owned by Latino, Anglo and Asian families.

Residents described their subdivision as “generally quiet.” But many have recently put up thick window bars and heavy metal door screens, fortifying themselves against gang rivalry that sometimes spills into their neighborhood.

On Thursday, the streets became a battle zone. Overhead, half a dozen choppers circled, while on the ground, scores of armed police and deputies blocked streets and barked orders at residents to get indoors.

Even after the suspect was taken away, Gloria Rodriguez, 48, was still shaking her head and holding one of her four children tightly. Rodriguez lives on Manitoba Drive, near the end of the cul-de-sac where the chase ended.

“One of my daughters called from Riverside and told me to watch the TV, and I said, ‘I gotta go, Crystal, he’s in front of my house!’ ” she said, standing outside her home.

“We ran outside . . . and saw his truck speed past us, then we ran inside the house because we knew he had a gun. We were scared, the baby was crying. We went to the hallway and hid. I almost had an anxiety attack--I don’t like this at all. It was so scary!”

Sarah Mitchell, a thin 18-year-old who lives with the Rodriguezes, peeked out a window and saw the gunman running, then raising his arm and shooting behind him.

“I saw him . . . go through the back yards behind us, and we could hear the gun going ‘pow, pow, pow.’ I was on the floor, just shaking,” Mitchell said. “I thought I was going to die.”

Kent Chavez, 31, who had watched part of the chase on TV earlier in the morning, left his home in the neighborhood to pick up a young nephew from school. He was almost broadsided by the pickup.

“I couldn’t believe it, though; he was just leaning out the window like, ‘Go ahead, make my day,’ ” Chavez said of the gunman. “It was just like on TV. He was real close, too. I thought, ‘Damn, he could kill me.’ ”

Hours after the chase ended, a section of the neighborhood was still cordoned off with yellow police ribbons as detectives searched for clues.

A policewoman wearing a tag that identified her as “S. Vo” placed numbered yellow markers near spots on the walls of houses and trees that were struck by bullets. Another officer stood watch directly over the spot where the gunman had dropped his nine-millimeter handgun. Nearby, a colleague searched the grass for bullets or shell casings, using a metal detector like those used to find coins and lost treasures on beaches.

Some residents tried to continue with the day’s business, but more milled around, talking about the drama.

“No one minds a good police chase,” said Ralph Rodriguez, 23. “But this one was too close to home.”

Times staff writers Jodi Wilgoren and Eric Young and correspondent Geoff Boucher contributed to this story.

Times staff writers David Avila, Tom Gorman, Kevin Johnson, Davan Maharaj, Jon D. Markman, David Reyes, Mike Ward and Eric Young and correspondent Geoff Boucher contributed to coverage of the shooting of a Pomona policeman and the chase that followed.

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